178 SPRING ACTION. 



Of plants and animals, and many of us do not either 

 know their names or themselves when we see them. 

 How then could it be possible for us to tell what 

 would give them the appearances that they in future 

 are to evolve 1 To take a single instance, the future 

 peach is not yet the size of a pin's head, and few can 

 tell what it is if they do not see it taken out of a bud 

 which they believe to be the bud of a peach-tree ; 

 and very fetv could tell it from the nectarine or the 

 apricot. Now, there is no question that there is 

 something communicated by the atmosphere to the 

 infant peach, which gives it its soft velvety coat, 

 and its purple and green and gold ; but suppose the 

 most skilful man were asked to " go and put the 

 down and the colours to the peaches, so that they 

 might be in the very perfection of their beauty, just 

 at the time when the pulp was most delicious to the 

 taste," what would he do 1 And what would another 

 one equally wise do if he were commanded to " per- 

 fume the rose," or " scent the mignionette," or 

 " flavour the pineapples or the strawberries T' Yet 

 all these things have been wonderfully improved by 

 human art ; but that art has never been successful 

 in any one case when it was not founded on the most 

 minute and careful observation of nature. 



As the Apollo of the ancients was the sun, or the 

 image of light and heat, so Mercury, the messenger 

 of the gods, was the atmosphere; and though the 

 personification was a fiction or a fable, still it was 

 a beautiful fable ; and among those who have the 

 knowledge of the true religion which God himself 

 has revealed, and therefore are in no danger of being 

 led into any thing like idolatrous worship by it, the 

 fable is a most instructive fable, and gives in a few 

 words one general and remarkable means of bearing 

 in mind a great many truths. 



Now though we cannot say positively that there 

 is no agency but that of the sun concerned in the 

 production of all the sweetness of the blooming 



